


The way only I know you

by iwtv



Category: Gentleman Jack (TV)
Genre: Ann draws a half naked Anne in their bed, F/F, That's it that's the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21588625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: The small smile playing across her lips sparked into her eyes as she bent and kissed the inside of Anne’s wrist. The mirrored gesture was incomparably endearing to Anne.“Miss Walker,” Anne said in a firm, low voice. “You’re trying to scandalize me.”
Relationships: Anne Lister (1791-1840)/Ann Walker (1803-1854)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 169





	The way only I know you

Anne rolled onto her back and snaked a hand under her pillow, not wanting to wake just yet.

Everything was soft and warm and quiet and she felt wonderfully rested. When she turned on her side and did open her eyes, a pair of green eyes under soft, pale eyebrows met hers. Anne smiled at the freckles she saw on the nose.

“Good morning,” said Ann.

“Mm. Morning.”

Anne smiled and leaned in for a kiss. Ann pulled back and pursed her lips but it did little to hide the smile still there.

“You slept well, I take it?” Anne asked, twisting to reach towards her watch beside the bed.

“I did,” said Ann. “And you must have. You fell asleep so quickly after.”

Her fingers fumbled uselessly on the top of the wood. Anne looked around but her watch wasn’t there.

“Looking for something?”

Anne turned back around. Her wife was dangling the silver chain of her watch in her hand, smile now a bit smug.

Anne frowned and made a disgruntled noise. Ann bit down on her lip and leaned back as Anne tried stealing back her time. Her frown wouldn’t quite stay put as she reached for the watch, until her lips were pressed into Ann’s again. She hadn’t put her shirt on again after their love making during the night and her bare skin pressed into the younger woman’s. Ann hummed contently in her throat.

“I want to draw you like this,” Ann said when Anne had finally retrieved her stolen goods.

“Like what?”

“This,” repeated Ann.

She pulled down the remainder of the sheets from Anne’s midsection, revealing her topless, save for the dark spill of her hair.

“My other drawings of you, they’re all of you out in the world,” said Ann when Anne gave her a curious look. “That’s the way people know you. I want to draw you the way only _I_ know you.”

Ann reached over and brushed her fingers down over Anne’s bare shoulder and arm. Anne shuddered pleasantly at the touch. Her fingers stretched out to meet Ann’s and Ann twined them together. Anne looked at her again and flashed her teeth nervously.

“A drawing this early? Ah. Well. I haven’t even bathed yet.”

“We both washed last night,” said Ann evenly. “You’re perfectly handsome.”

The small smile playing across her lips sparked into her eyes as she bent and kissed the inside of Anne’s wrist. The mirrored gesture was incomparably endearing to Anne.

“Miss Walker,” Anne said in a firm, low voice. “You’re trying to scandalize me.”

*

A short time later Anne found herself posing for her wife, but in quite a different form than she had ever done before for a portrait.

They had to wait for Ms. Cordingley to come calling at ten after nine, wanting to know if Miss Lister needed helping dressing and if she should bother Ann’s room, since Miss Walker also had not yet risen.

Anne answered no to both queries and Cordingley left. As soon as she had, Ann rose to lock the door and grab her sketchbook. She refused to let Anne throw on her nightshirt.

It felt strange to pose half nude but also vaguely thrilling. 

“Am I doing this right? Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer me with an enormous feathered hat on?” Anne jested.

Ann snorted a little but shook her head no. She shifted in the chair she had drug across the room, angling her sketchbook on a small easel. The tip of her tongue stuck out in concentration, brows furrowed.

“My, you are determined,” said Anne with a smile.

“Shh. Try not to move.”

Her wife’s determination was arousing but Anne did her best to behave despite feeling somewhat silly. She had no problem with her body and appreciated it as well or poorly as any woman did their body, but she had never considered herself gifted with the physical beauty people found alluring. Ann, however, was once again reminding her that she _was_ alluring to someone. The thought made her dangerously close to happy as she watched Ann work.

Minutes ticked by and Anne was beginning to get uncomfortable. Ann had been furiously scrawling with pencil to paper. Anne had never seen her quite so involved in a drawing before.

“Just another minute,” promised Ann. Her green eyes flashed back and forth from the sketchbook to her wife. At last she leaned back and regarded her work. Anne tried to read her reaction.

“Well? Is it done?”

“I think so…yes. It’s done.”

“May I see it?”

Ann looked up at her, biting her lip excitedly. She was blushing.

“Oh, now I must see it,” said Anne.

She got up from the bed and was at Ann’s side in two long strides.

There she was, drawn with every bit of skill and detail she always saw in Ann’s work. Anne inhaled sharply. Of course she recognized herself immediately, but there was something about the way Ann had captured the shape of her body; everything from the angle of her long, bent legs to how her hair draped naturally around her to the way her wedding ring rested on her finger, that was absolutely true.

“Please tell me if you don’t like it,” Ann said quickly.

Anne shook her head.

“No it’s brilliant,” she managed at last. She flashed Ann a broad smile and Ann relaxed, letting out a small laugh. She rose from the chair. Her hands slid over Anne’s breasts and cupped them as her nose pressed into Anne’s. A puff of air slipped past Anne’s parted lips at the feel of warm hands over her cool breasts. Her nipples hardened.

“Mm, I’ve been wanting to do that all morning,” said Ann.

Their lips met and Anne moaned into the kiss. A knock on the door broke the moment. Marian’s voice rang out from the other side.

“Anne? You’ve been in there all morning long. You promised you would ride into town with me today. Anne? Anne!”

Anne rolled her eyes, marveling at how they had yet to become stuck up there whenever her sister was yelling her name. Ann giggled and blushed, moving at the same time as Anne to get herself looking more decent.

“Yes Marian, I’m quite awake now, thank you,” Anne drolled out loudly. “A moment, please.”

Once she had thrown on her shirt and had tied her hair back Anne put her hand on the doorknob. Her wife moved off to the far side of the bed to stay out of sight. Anne waited, silently counting, until Marian began to yell again.

“For Pete’s sake Anne, you—”

Anne swung open the door, blocking it with her body as she did so.

“I’m right here. You can stop bellowing like a sick cow, Marian.”

Marian startled, then frowned outright at her sibling.

“Well some days it takes some bellowing to get your attention,” Marian replied haughtily.

She started when she heard an accompanying giggle from somewhere behind Anne. She instantly began straining to see over Anne’s shoulder.

“Is that Miss Walker? What on earth are you doing?”

“Nothing. Miss Walker has done another sketch of me, that’s all.”

Marian’s eyes alighted on the chair and easel over Anne’s shoulder. She bobbed back and forth, trying to push Anne out of the way.

“Oh? Can I have a look?”

Anne stiffened and hesitated. Then she stepped out of the way. It was just long enough for Marian to get a better look at the image of Anne on paper. Marian’s eyes grew to the size of milk saucers.

“It’s not really me I assure you,” Anne said in one breath and slammed the door shut on her sister’s face. There was a mouse-like squealing sound, followed by a series of indignant mutterings, before Marian’s footsteps sounded down the hallway and onto the stairs.

Anne looked at her wife, who was red in the face but also with a hand clamped over her mouth. Anne bit the inside of her cheeks before sobering.

“Well that will keep her from my door for a while,” she quipped.

Ann had recovered herself but she giggled. Anne smiled and raised her eyebrows. She would never tell Ann but her smiles and laughter filled her with a joy she hadn’t known before, not even in the early days of seeing Mariana. Ann crossed the room to her, still wearing only her night shift, golden hair flowing around her. Her expression changed from mirth to something more carnal. Anne sucked in a breath. She took Ann by the hips and pulled her close. Her eyes fell over Ann’s shoulder to the drawing again.

“Thank you for that,” said Ann. “You can do what you like with it. If you want to get rid of it I understand…”

“No,” said Anne.

She kissed Ann’s lips lightly and played with the strings on the front of her shift.

“I’m keeping it. I’ll put it inside my journal, snug between all those words about you.”

Ann looked up at her through her brows. She snaked her hands under her wife’s shift again.

“Now, where were we?” she asked.

***

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone was thinking of that scene in Titanic when Jack draws Rose...that was some inspiration. :)


End file.
